Fairfax County police: Man wanted for pepper spraying employees

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. (DC News Now) — The Fairfax County Police Department (FCPD) are searching for a suspect they believe robbed three county stores and, in the process, pepper sprayed employees.

Surveillance camera video shows an incident around 11 p.m. on Thursday night when the suspect walked into a Shell gas station convenience store on Richmond Highway, approached the employee behind the register, took money out of the cash register and then seconds later, pepper sprayed the worker.

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A store employee who spoke with DC News Now said more than $400 was taken. The employee also believes the suspect frequents the area.

Days later, police believe the same suspect robbed the Velvets Tobacco and More store just doors down from the Shell. In that incident, the suspect also took an employee’s car keys and drove the car a short distance.

Then, early Wednesday morning, police said the same suspect robbed a Rose Hill 7-Eleven. In each of the cases, security cameras captured the suspect, who used pepper spray in each incident.

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“These stores often can be vulnerable,” said James Curry with FCPD. “They’re open late at night, a lot of times by themselves.”

Police said they’re hopeful an arrest can come soon so the stores can go back to business as usual instead of fearing another robbery or attack.

“We have a lot of officers out there deployed to arrest them and make sure that we can stop this as quickly as possible,” Curry said.

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